1 Slot Available · Q1 2026

"Deployment time reduced from 2 weeks to 3 days" — Technology Company

Technical leadership for fintech scale-ups

17 years debugging million-dollar trading systems at major French banks, then scaling fintech across 4 countries. I help founders implement architecture that passes regulatory audits and handles growth—without the full-time CTO salary.

• 2-3 days/week engagement
• 3-month minimum commitment
• Banking & regulatory experience
50+ Projects
delivered
5 Countries
worked in
17 Years in
engineering
Khaled Souf

Trusted by teams at

BNP Paribas Crédit Agricole Société Générale Stealth Fintech invygo Lightspeed

Two Ways I Can Help

Whether you need ongoing technical leadership or a focused intervention.

Fintech Startups & Scale-ups

Fractional CTO

3-6 months • 2-3 days/week

Strategic technical leadership without the €200K+ salary. I embed with your team to make architecture decisions, build hiring processes, and establish practices that scale—with deep fintech and regulatory experience.

What you get

  • Tech strategy & roadmap
  • Architecture decisions
  • Hiring process setup
  • Team structure design
  • Regulatory tech guidance
  • Investor-ready tech story
Banks & Financial Services

Tech Audit & Coaching

2 weeks - 3 months

Diagnose what's slowing your teams down and fix it. I audit your architecture, processes, and delivery metrics—then coach your teams to implement improvements with compliance in mind.

What you get

  • Architecture review
  • DORA metrics assessment
  • Dev Experience audit
  • CI/CD optimization
  • Team coaching sessions
  • Technical debt roadmap

Tech Due Diligence for VCs & M&A

Pre-investment technical assessment for fundraising rounds and acquisitions. I evaluate architecture quality, team capabilities, technical debt levels, scalability risks, and regulatory compliance—delivering actionable reports within 2-3 weeks.

✓ Architecture Assessment ✓ Team & Process Review ✓ Risk Identification ✓ Scalability Analysis
Discuss a Due Diligence →

The Ship Better Framework

A proven 4-step process I use with every engagement.

Discover

Deep dive into your codebase, architecture, team dynamics, and delivery pipeline. No assumptions—just facts.

Diagnose

Identify the root causes of slow delivery. Usually it's 2-3 key bottlenecks, not 20 small issues.

Design

Create an actionable roadmap with quick wins (2 weeks) and strategic improvements (3-6 months).

Deliver

Implement changes with your team. I don't just advise—I code, review, and coach until it sticks.

Concrete Results

Don't take my word for it—here are the numbers in fintech and financial services.

35%

Cloud cost reduction

Right-sized infrastructure and implemented spot instances for non-critical workloads. Annual savings: CHF 180K.

→ Stealth Fintech, Zurich
40%

Faster delivery cycles

Reduced deployment time from 2 weeks to 3 days through CI/CD pipeline overhaul and process streamlining.

→ Financial Services, Switzerland
30%

Tech debt reduction

Systematic refactoring strategy with dedicated 20% time. Measurable improvement in code quality metrics.

→ Financial Services, Switzerland
6+

Major regulatory projects

Led craftsmanship coaching across feature teams on compliance-critical banking projects.

→ Société Générale, Paris

Deep Fintech & Banking Experience

Software Craftsman & Architect

Société Générale

Paris • 2019

Led technical coaching across multiple feature teams. Introduced TDD/BDD practices and DDD architecture patterns to a major banking platform.

Major French Bank

Cloud & Software Architect

Stealth Fintech

Zurich • 2023-2024

Architected cloud infrastructure for a FINMA-regulated crypto platform. Set up CI/CD pipelines, testing strategy, and microservices decomposition.

Regulated Crypto

DDD Consultant

Lightspeed

Montreal • 2021

Domain-Driven Design transformation for payment processing systems. Helped slice legacy monolith into bounded contexts with clear APIs.

Payments

Don't Take My Word For It

"Fantastic at complex projects"

His ability to jump into a complex project that requires taking a software architecture lead and decomposing it is fantastic! He brings a strong technical opinion to the table and supports the team to delivery.

Darragh Grealish

Darragh Grealish

Co-Founder & CTO, 56K.Cloud

Verify on LinkedIn →

"Bet on Khaled"

Khaled is a passionate software developer and craftsman. He delivers high quality work and is always on the search of improvements. If you want things to improve—codebase, team work, team knowledge—you can safely bet on Khaled.

Vincent Demeester

Vincent Demeester

Sr. Principal Engineer, Red Hat

Verify on LinkedIn →

Khaled Souf

From trading floors to fintech scale-ups

Started debugging million-dollar trading systems at BNP Paribas and Société Générale—systems that process billions daily. That experience taught me what happens when architecture fails at scale.

Spent 17 years across 5 countries implementing systems for major banks, crypto platforms, and mobility fintech. I specialize in regulated industries where technical debt isn't just expensive—it's compliance risk.

Currently co-founding a regulated fintech platform in France. When not building, I speak about Domain-Driven Design, regulatory compliance architecture, and scaling engineering teams.

GDPR Compliance PCI DSS Banking APIs Regulatory Architecture Domain-Driven Design
🇫🇷 France 🇨🇭 Switzerland 🇨🇦 Canada 🇦🇪 UAE 🇹🇳 Tunisia

How It Works

How many days per week?

Typically 1-3 days per week, depending on your needs. I integrate with your team's rhythm—standups, planning, reviews—without the overhead of a full-time exec.

Remote or on-site?

Primarily remote, with periodic on-site visits for workshops, team alignment, or critical milestones. Based in Annecy, I can easily reach Geneva, Lausanne, Lyon, Paris, or Zurich.

Minimum engagement?

3 months minimum for Fractional CTO work—real change takes time. Tech Audits are one-time engagements (2-4 weeks). No long-term lock-in after the initial period.

What's the difference vs. a consultant?

Consultants advise. I execute. As your Fractional CTO, I own outcomes—making architecture decisions, hiring engineers, shipping features. Skin in the game, not slide decks.

Which industries do you specialize in?

Fintech, banking, payments, and regulated industries. I've worked with ACPR, FINMA, and built systems that handle compliance, KYC, and financial transactions at scale.

What languages do you work in?

Fluent in French, English, and Arabic. I've led teams across France, Switzerland, Canada, UAE, and Tunisia—comfortable with multicultural, distributed teams.

Ready for Technical Leadership?

30-minute technical assessment. No sales pitch, just engineering analysis.

Free consultation • Banking & regulatory expertise

Get Technical Assessment →

Or connect directly on LinkedIn